Can not mount Google Drive Folder as Native Path

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nutnutwin
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Can not mount Google Drive Folder as Native Path

#1 Post by nutnutwin » 2023-02-01 03:55

Hi, been using filezilla server for a while, Thank you for your great work

# Background
I have a user with 「Native path」 set to 「C:\Temp\」 and it works fine
(I can access this server using the account, and can use dir/ls to show its files

# My Situation
Next I set the 「Native path」 to 「G:\」(or G:\My Drive), where Google Drive is mounted,

- I can login
- I cannot do dir/ls

Code: Select all

230 Login successful.
ftp> ls
200 EPRT command successful.
550 Couldn't open the file or directory
# My Question
is this expected behavior? Is there a workaround?

# My environment
Windows 10 Pro 22H2
FileZilla Server 1.6.5
FTP Command from Windows CMD/WinSCP

Thank you.

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botg
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Re: Can not mount Google Drive Folder as Native Path

#2 Post by botg » 2023-02-01 15:06

Is it a global mount, or is the mount limited to the current desktop session? Note that the FileZilla Server service runs in its own session.

nutnutwin
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Re: Can not mount Google Drive Folder as Native Path

#3 Post by nutnutwin » 2023-02-02 22:35

botg wrote:
2023-02-01 15:06
Is it a global mount, or is the mount limited to the current desktop session? Note that the FileZilla Server service runs in its own session.
# Question
Hi, could you please tell me what you mean by 「global mount」, or how I can verify on my device?

# Clarification
I am sorry for the bad wording, as I install Google Drive, it seem to set up a drive(By default G:\) to keep the files synced with cloud side.

One thing I know for sure is that I cannot access files stored there right after login, that is

- Right after login
No, cannot access
- After awhile, when 「GoogleDriveFS.exe」 is running, as also shown in the TaskTray
Yes, can access
- If I close Google Drive by right click on the tray icon
No, cannot access
- If I re-run the 「GoogleDriveFS.exe」
Yes, can access

# MISC
I am not sure how Google implement this app, but one thing is for sure it's not like NAS Folder(SMB mount)

Sorry for the long post.

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botg
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Re: Can not mount Google Drive Folder as Native Path

#4 Post by botg » 2023-02-03 10:31

Windows is a multi-user operating system. Multiple users can be logged in at the same time, using the same computer. Logged-in users are isolated from each other, they run in different sessions. Likewise, services too run in their own sessions.

Mount point on Windows, such as drive letters, can be associated either with a specific session, in which case they are only accessible from that session, or they can be system-wide (global) in which case they are accessible from all sessions.

I'm not familiar with how the Google Drive software sets up the mount. Maybe Google can answer this question?

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oibaf
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Re: Can not mount Google Drive Folder as Native Path

#5 Post by oibaf » 2023-02-03 11:39

If, as I understand it, when the google drive app is running the server is able to access the mount, to me that means that that's the solution, that is have the google drive app running.

Or what am I missing?

iam_sysop
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Re: Can not mount Google Drive Folder as Native Path

#6 Post by iam_sysop » 2023-02-03 22:55

Google Drive mounts on a per-user-per-session basis. This prevents "other logged in users" from accessing the google drive that is mounted under the primary user context.

You must either configure Google Drive to run as a service (which is not directly supported by Google) - or set up your server to run as the same user that the Google Drive runs as. Either way, the Google Drive will only honor the context of the user who is logged into the Drive.

Configuring Google Drive to run as a service will require most likely a third party application to configure and launch the service. There are several results when searching Google for this concept - but most of them require srvany from the Windows 2003 Resource Kit (or an alternative like NSSM https://nssm.cc/ ) --

nutnutwin
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Re: Can not mount Google Drive Folder as Native Path

#7 Post by nutnutwin » 2023-02-05 21:24

Thank you all for the great answers

Really appreciate your help.

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botg
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Re: Can not mount Google Drive Folder as Native Path

#8 Post by botg » 2023-02-06 07:56

iam_sysop wrote:
2023-02-03 22:55
Google Drive mounts on a per-user-per-session basis. This prevents "other logged in users" from accessing the google drive that is mounted under the primary user context.
Good to know.

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